Archibald Penderghast
Archibald Penderghast was a male human fighter in the Emeron campaign. Background Archibald was born in Emeron City, the fourth of seven children and is the youngest son of Walter, a bookbinder and Molly (nee: Vaughn), a housewife. He is the older brother of Froderik Penderghast. Archibald was always a strapping lad bonded with his brother Froderick, with tales of adventure. The two were always close and frequently spent time together growing up. One one occasion when they were children the small and skinny, but clever and sarcastic, Froderick ran afoul of a trio of bullying brothers. He returned home battered from the actions of the three brothers. When Froderick told Archibald what happened Archie took a mop and departed without a word. He returned home two hours later with some minor injuries and a broken mop. Neither brother ever said a word about the thrashing Archie so clearly gave the boys for attacking his brother. Though not dumb by any stretch of one's imagination, Archie was not quite as smart as most of his family, and gravitated towards physical pursuits. Though Archibald wished to pursue adventure he knew that doing so with no training was the height of stupidity so he joined the city guard when he was seventeen to learn how to fight. Archibald knew Froderik had similar dreams of adventure, and Archie always imagined the two would go off together to pursue it. Archie had done the math and he estimated that Froderick would complete his lessons at the Emeron Wizard's College around the same time that his tour of service with the City Watch was completed and that they two could leave Emeron City together to pursue their adventure. Unfortunately Froderick, frustrated at the slow pace of his lessons, left school early. Archie still had a year of service left and could not go with Froderick as he left the city to pursue magical research elsewhere. Enemy of the Crown On the 22nd of Griffon there was a massive explosion at Strade Hall caused when a trio of individuals summoned, bound and destroyed the avatar of Yotia. Unbeknownst to Archibald this would have a massive effect on his life. One of the pieces of Yotia's spirit lodged into the soul of his father, Walter, and transported him and six others who were now linked together to the nearby estate of Nuqwell. There were those out there who wished to snuff out these last vestiges of Yotia's avatar and they began to actively hunt Walter and the rest of the Joined of Yotia. Ignorant of this, Walter and the Joined of Yotia came to Emeron City to seek the assistance of Jon Sumnim and Jaymes Chickwood, both professors at the Emeron Wizard's College that he knew because Froderik had been a student there. While Walter and the Joined waited for the professor's findings, they were attacked in the Penderghast home by mysterious agents seeking them. The Joined barely managed to get away. Archibald was present for little of this, however, as the damage wrought by the explosion had kept him on shift around the clock in the days following the explosion. While he was on duty an Emerald Knight arrived with his commanding officer and several of his fellow city watch. They accused him of treason and arrested him, installing him in Castle Finarte with the reset of the Penderghast family. Eventually the family was able to surmise that they had not managed to capture Walter and were holding the rest of the family to try to flush him out of hiding. Rescue On the 25th of Lion rescue came in the form of Froderik. He had evidently suffered a similar situation as Walter, though with a piece of Vesper's spirit rather than Yotia's. Regardless, those joined to Froderik and those Joined to Walter and combined forces and staged a jailbreak, freeing the Penderghasts from the dungeons of Castle Finarte. They fled the castle thorough a secret entrance to the sewers and regrouped in the Hemlock Tops Forest. Froderik revealed that sanctuary had been arranged for the Penderghasts in the Thorgain Kingdom and that travel had been arranged. Archie thanked his rescuers and, when he learned that Froderik could not come with them, wished his brother well, promising to protect the family. In the Thorgain Kingdom Archibald, along with the rest of the Penderghasts and the Joined of Yotia were smuggled to the Kingdom of Thorgain by Trista Ravenlark, who had arranged sanctuary in the capital with Martok Stonecutter, a high ranking priest of Clangeddin. As the only real warrior in the family Archibald considered it his duty to protect his family. While there, a pair of dwarven assassins attempted to attack the Joined in the middle of the night. Archibald and Pherey Biggsby fought the attackers off while the others sounded the alarm. With the church roused, the priests of Clangeddin quickly found and killed the attackers before they were able to leave church grounds. Martok launched an immediate investigation, which the Joined of Yotia assisted with. The assailants turned out to be lowlife thugs and criminals hired hastily by a go-between. It took several days of running down leads in the less savory parts of Thorgain City. The investigation revealed the true culprit: Dulmor Earthmantle, an adviser to Thane King Farim Ironbreaker himself. Martok took the intelligence to the Crown and the king ordered Dulmor's immediate arrest, however the culprit manged to slip away before the authorities closed in on him, seeming to vanish overnight. It was only weeks later when the Joined of Vesper came to Thorgain City with the real Dulmor Earthmantle that it was realized the true culprit was a Spider Person impostor who had been serving in the Royal Court for decades. Category:Emeron Category:Characters Category:NPCs